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Mission secrète (Tina comic)/plot
The comic strip is a fairly faithful adaptation of the original plot and reference should be made to it for details. The characters remain the same except that Worrals takes the part of Lance Lovell and Frecks takes that of Rodney. The section headings are not used in the comic strip and are inserted here simply to make comparison with the original easier. The chapter numbers in brackets refer to the corresponding chapter in Sinister Service. Mission Briefing (Chapter VIII) The mission briefing with General Carteret is reproduced accurately with all the essential details intact. Obviously the preamble where Carteret interviews Rodney about his keenness to join the intelligence service is omitted. Inspector Wayne is not present. General Carteret does not mention any reason why Worrals and Frecks are particularly suited for the mission--of Lance and Rodney he says they know Germany and the German language well. The whole session with Worrals and Frecks is done in a very matter of fact way and concludes, as per the original, with the General asking them to meet at his house at 9 p.m. that night. Into Obendorf (Chapter IX) Worrals and Frecks parachute in and hide from a car of Gestapo agents searching for spies. They mention the same thing: some secret apparatus had heard their plane turn back around that area but it didn't drop bombs or leaflets. Worrals and Frecks then encounter the policeman and then decide that checking into a hotel is too dangerous and visit the bierhaus where they meet Schmidt. There is no interlude with Gestapo agents checking out the restaurant. Schmidt brings them to his house--a tailor shop--and introduces them to his wife, who is named Greta here. In the original she is simply "Mamma" Schmidt. Greta does not talk about it this act leading them to the concentration camp. Over supper, the conversation with Schmidt over supper is similar to the original: their son Fritz is a guard at the college where experiments are going on which might shorten the war. The conversation with Fritz, however, takes a different tack from the original. Fritz does not enter the room with a "Heil Hitler" not do Worrals and Frecks respond. Schmidt does not introduce the girls as working for the government and Fritz does not say that he has a spy hunting mission the next day. Here, Worrals breaks the ice herself by telling Fritz they are also interested in joining the army. Fritz says it is impossible except for roles like nurses and secretaries. When Worrals says that they are qualified secretaries, Fritz mentions that he knows the office is short of typists and offers to take the girls to meet Commander Wolf to see if he will offer them jobs. Rescue (Chapter X) Because their method for gaining entry into the college is different, the entire section where Lance and Rodney go to Hamburg and pretend to be officials from "Bureau 17" is omitted. And so is the scene where Lance meets Commander Wolf and asks him to produce Colberg. Here Worrals and Frecks are taken into the college by Fritz and asked to wait in a room because his superiors are busy (the bureau 17 visitors are late). Worrals and Frecks steal out of the room and sneak upstairs. Unlike Lance, they don't knock Wolf. They distract a guard with a packet of candy then knock him out with their revolvers and get his key. They unlock Colberg's room. They don't get the doctor to put on a coat or cap--they simply walk down service stairs to exit into a side street, steal a car and move off. The whole section in the orginal where Lance and Rodney steal a bureau 17 car from the college courtyard and drive off while being shot at is not reproduced. On the Road (Chapter XI) As stated, Worrals does not steal the car of the bureau 17 officials. They get into a side street undetected and steal a random car and drive off. The rest of the journey is much as in the original--they pretend to "work for the government" (Gestapo is not mentioned) and commandeer a cabbage truck and pass through two road blocks. They run out of fuel three miles from Hamburg and walk into town. Hamburg (Chapter XII) They look unsuccessfully for Lindenstrasse, the address of the safehouse General Carteret gave them. At a train station, Worrals gets on a horse drawn carriage. Here it is a "fiacre".wikipedia: Fiacre (carriage) In the original it was a "growler".wikipedia: Clarence (carriage) Frecks and Colburg follow behind and they arrive at 219 Lindenstrasse. As in the original, Worrals gives the correct password to a woman (Hannah) at the door and they are taken to a room which is also described as done up like a doctor's consulting room. The conversation between Worrals and Nather is the same as between Lance and Nather and the group is installed in a secret room. Shocks (Chapter XIII) In the same manner, after a brief discussion the next morning, Nather supplies them with books to pass the time and goes off to get petrol. They wait in the secret room, hear a loud cry and voices. Time passes and Nather and Hannah do not turn up. By midnight, Worrals and Frecks take a peep outside. Frecks overhears two guards say that Nather and Hannah have been arrested for an escape case (they must have helped someone escape) the previous week. There is no mention that Nather had been shot or that Hannah committed suicide in her cell. Worrals decides the safest place to be is to remain in their secret room and they pass the night there. The rest of the time in the hiding place passes much as in the original. Worrals studies a map and plots the best route to the landing ground through Neufgarten. Only, Worrals plans to leave at nine to make it there by midnight. Lance planed on ten. They change their appearance. The doctor dresses as an old woman in a fur coat (but still with a beard). Worrals and Frecks are decked out fashionably in Tyrolean costumes with mini-skirts. Rodney dressed as a German private soldier but obviously Frecks couldn't do this. Desparate Work (Chapter XIV) Out in the office, Worrals sets fire to some papers with the intention of burning the place down to prevent other agents using the safehouse as it is now a trap. She asks Frecks to whistle to attract a guard in and Worrals then knocks him out with a paper-press. In the original Lance used a wine bottle. Unlike Lance and Rodney, they don't have to shoot their way out. They escape just as the guards outside dash into the house. The journey to Neufgarten is depicted faithfully and in great detail. All the events are repeated. They find the train station and hire a horse carriage (another fiacre) just in time. The carriage is halted in a traffic jam at a checkpoint and they all decide to get off and eat at a restaurant (same food as Rodney and Lance--they had no ration coupons for meat). Worrals then sets fire to a truck carrying hay to create a diversion. There is pandemonium like in the original but there is however no raid by R.A.F. bombers nor added press of people coming out of a cinema. Still on the Run (Chapter XV) They get to the landing ground and hear dogs approaching. The same discussion about how the Germans could have gotten materials for their scent takes place. Worrals then leads the others to lay false trails for the dogs. Frecks and the doctor hold up his fur coat while Worrals signals the three red flashes to summon the approaching plane. A Fight for Life (Chapter XVI) The dogs and their handlers approach just as the plane lands. Worrals holds off the pursuers while Frecks bundles the doctor into the aircraft. Like in the original, Frecks tells to Doctor to lie down and then discovers the pilot has been injured. They drag the pilot out of his seat and the doctor tends to him--he seems to do more here than in the original. Rodney used the Blenheim turret to cover Lance's retreat but Frecks doesn't do that, although the picture clearly shows this mark of Blenheim has a dorsal turret. Worrals makes it on board and they take off safely and head for the North Sea. Touch and Go (Chapter XVII) Like in the original, they dodge flak and are then intercepted by aircraft. Only, they are not Messerschmitts as in the original. Here they look like Stukas! Again, Rodney used the turret but Frecks doesn't. Worrals dives into a cloud bank to avoid them but later, over the sea, Frecks reports the smell of petrol. Some bullets must have hit the spot. The same reasoning about not using the radio takes place as in the original. They fire off flares and then ditch about two miles off the coast. Worrals tells Frecks as they vacate the plane, that she is certain some help will come. They are picked up by a patrol boat, but this picture is not drawn. After the scene of them leaving the cockpit, there are two more. One shows Worrals and Frecks visiting the injured pilot in hospital (he also apologises for missing the fun) and the last is General Carteret congratulating the two girls. References Category:Plot summaries (derivative works)